This invention relates in general to vehicle wheels and in particular to an improved method and apparatus for producing a vehicle wheel.
A conventional vehicle wheel is typically of a two-piece construction and includes an inner wheel disc and an outer xe2x80x9cfullxe2x80x9d wheel rim. The wheel disc can be cast, forged, or fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inner annular wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion. The wheel mounting portion of the wheel disc defines an inboard mounting surface and includes a center pilot or hub hole, and a plurality of lug receiving holes formed therethrough for mounting the vehicle wheel to an axle of the vehicle. The wheel rim is fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, an axially extending well, an outboard tire bead seat, and an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange. In some instances, a three-piece wheel construction having a mounting cup secured to the wheel disc is used. In both types of constructions, the outer annular portion of the wheel disc is secured to the wheel rim by welding.
In the above vehicle wheel constructions, after the wheel disc and the wheel rim have been assembled and welded together several finishing operations may be required to produce a wheel having the desired specifications. First, at least one of the inboard and outboard tire bead seats and/or at least one of the inboard and outboard tire bead seat retaining flanges may have to be generally be processed so that the tire bead seats are oriented and located concentric with the wheel axis (commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cradial runoutxe2x80x9d), and the tire bead seat retaining flanges are oriented in a parallel relationship relative to an inboard mounting surface of the wheel disc (commonly referred to as xe2x80x9clateralxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9caxialxe2x80x9d runoutxe2x80x9d). Following this, the location of center pilot hole, the lug receiving holes, or both may have to be corrected by an appropriate method, such as reboring the center pilot hole and repunching the lug receiving holes, so that an axis of the center pilot hole is oriented in a concentric relationship relative to the wheel axis and the tire bead seats and the axes of the lug receiving holes are oriented parallel to the wheel axis.
One example of a prior art wheel assembly tooling apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,385 to Daniels. As disclosed in the Daniels patent, the prior art wheel assembly tooling apparatus is effective to force fit a wheel disc within a wheel rim. The prior art wheel assembly tooling apparatus accomplishes this by fixedly locating the wheel rim, fixing the relationship of a center portion and flange portions of the wheel disc to each other, and applying a uniform force to such portions of the wheel disc to force fit the flange portions within the drop center flange of the wheel rim while maintaining the center portion of the wheel disc in a plane parallel to a plane of the terminal flange of the wheel rim. As a result of this, the vehicle wheel is provided with minimum lateral runout.
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for assembling a wheel rim and a wheel disc together to produce a vehicle wheel The method comprises the steps of: (a) providing a wheel rim defining an axis and including an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, a well portion, an outboard tire bead seat, and an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange, the outboard tire bead seat retaining flange including a generally radially extending first inner surface, the outboard tire bead seat including a generally axially extending second inner surface, the well portion including a generally radially extending third inner surface adjacent the second inner surface, a generally axially extending fourth inner surface, a generally radially extending fifth inner surface, and a generally axially extending sixth inner surface, the third through the sixth inner surfaces of the well portion extending in succession from the outboard tire bead seat to the inboard tire bead seat, the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange including a generally radially extending seventh inner surface; (b) providing a wheel disc having a generally centrally located inner wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion which terminates in a generally axially extending outer annular flange including an endmost surface, the inner wheel mounting portion including an inboard mounting surface and an outboard mounting surface; (c) supporting the wheel rim between at least a portion of the third inner surface and at least a portion of one of the fifth inner surface and the seventh inner surface; (d) supporting the wheel disc between the inboard mounting surface and the outboard mounting surface of the inner wheel mounting portion; (e) selectively moving at least one of the wheel rim and the wheel disc toward one another to cause the outer annular flange of the wheel disc to engage the fourth inner surface of the wheel rim in a press fit engagement therewith while supporting the wheel rim and the wheel disc as recited in steps (c) and (d), the wheel rim and the wheel disc being selectively moved to produce a desired lateral runout dimension defined between the inboard mounting surface of the wheel disc and the seventh inner surface of the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange of the wheel rim; and (f) subsequent to step (e), welding the wheel disc to the wheel rim to thereby permanently join the wheel rim and the wheel disc together and produce the vehicle wheel.
Other advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, when read in light of the accompanying drawings.